TRANSITION IN CONNECTICUT: THE GOVERNOR

TRANSITION IN CONNECTICUT: THE GOVERNOR; Charting the Road Ahead, And Taking a Bit of Advice

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

Published: July 2, 2004

HARTFORD, July 1—
Pick two or three priorities within reach, starting with ethics. Ask every commissioner to submit a letter of resignation. And keep your house in Brookfield, so that you do not have to move full time into the mansion where Gov. John G. Rowland and his family have lived for the last nine years.

That is the advice that many old hands in government had this week for Connecticut's new governor, M. Jodi Rell. Signs are she's already moving in those directions.

''She certainly has the qualifications and the personality to step in at this type of situation that we have,'' said former Gov. William A. O'Neill, delicately.

He said she could expect a one-year respite from partisan infighting, in part because of the circumstances and in part because the legislative session does not begin until January. But, he said, ''She's got to work the crowd.''

As a former lieutenant governor himself, who ascended in 1980 when his fellow Democrat Ella T. Grasso resigned because of failing health, he had one other piece of advice for Mrs. Rell: ''The more publicity she gets, the better known she'll become.''

A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday shows that his assessment about her name recognition's being low is correct. Of those polled, 34 percent said they had a favorable opinion of Mrs. Rell, and only 7 percent had mixed or negative views about her. But the largest segment, 59 percent, said they had not even heard of her.

Her tough talk on ethics has already made a favorable impression. The first hire she announced was Rachel Rubin, a lawyer who testified on ethics rules during the recent legislative hearings weighing whether to recommend impeachment of Mr. Rowland. Mrs. Rell has also given Ms. Rubin wide berth to propose reforms and root out corruption. ''That was her first real act, and I think it speaks volumes,'' said Chris Healy, a Republican strategist.

Now, the new governor must decide whom to prune from the administration.

''She has to show it's not all talk,'' said Edward L. Marcus, the former head of the state Democratic Party. High on his list of who should go is Arthur H. Diedrick, the chairman of the Connecticut Development Authority. As a witness in the impeachment hearings, Mr. Diedrick had a hard time recalling much about the $3.6 million loan guarantee that his agency gave to a company controlled by one of Mr. Rowland's friends, Robert V. Matthews.

Stanley A. Twardy Jr., a Republican who was chief of staff under Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., said his inclination was also to clean house. ''Everybody has to go, whether it's on July 2 or Labor Day,'' he said.

But Howard Reiter, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Connecticut, said: ''It's kind of like de-Baathification in Iraq. You can get rid of everybody, but you'll throw out some good people along with the mediocre.''

Opinion seems split on one member of the former administration, Marc Ryan, the secretary of the Office of Policy and Management. Though he was intimately involved in just about every major project undertaken by the Rowland administration, he also has fans.

Thomas D. Ritter, a Democrat who was speaker of the House and is now a partner at a Hartford law firm, said the General Assembly has great faith in Mr. Ryan ''because when you shake hands with him, the deal is done, which is much different than the people who preceded him.''

Mrs. Rell's inaugural speech gave few clues to the agenda she will embrace in the two years left in her term. She briefly mentioned a desire to ''create jobs and grow our economy'' and promised to introduce initiatives on ''the economy, education and campaign finance reform.''

Unclear in those statements is whether she will maintain Mr. Rowland's vigorous, but costly aid to towns and cities. That has been a crowd pleaser in the state's Democratic enclaves, but it might thwart Mrs. Rell from her stated goal as a fiscal conservative of helping to replenish the state's rainy day funds, a crowd pleaser on Wall Street.

''If they cut aid to cities and towns she'll have a hard time,'' Mr. Ritter said. ''If she cuts the Department of Agriculture, I don't think anyone will care.''

The future of state aid was not on the mind of Mayor John Fabrizi of Bridgeport, a Democrat. He was trying to buttonhole the new governor to see if she got his five-page letter about restoring the public trust. ''That's the No. 1 priority,'' he said.

Mayor Dannel P. Malloy of Stamford, a Democrat who said he will run for governor in 2006, wanted to dwell a bit on the breakdowns in good government that led to this day. He said Mrs. Rell should create a blue-ribbon commission to analyze the lessons that can be gleaned from recent events including the unfinished impeachment inquiry. ''The idea you spent $4 million to $5 million investigating and that stuff is just packed in boxes is troubling,'' he said.

Where the governor puts her head on the pillow at night will also be laden with symbolism. Unlike Mr. Rowland, who spent nine years cosseted in a state-owned, Georgian-style mansion on Prospect Avenue, Mrs. Rell will still call Brookfield home, her aides say.

''I think it's important that a governor is rooted in the everyday rigmarole of life,'' Mr. Healy said. ''I'm pretty sure she's going to keep her residence because that is what keeps her grounded.''

Thomas J. Meskill, a former governor who is now a senior judge on the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, resisted offering advice because he has been out of politics since 1975. ''I would not give anyone advice,'' he said, ''as long as they honor their oath of office. That's all we can ask.''